If you have an interest in ancient history, this is a really good GE to take. It's not unreasonably hard, and the workload is not bad at all. You really have to attend lectures if you want to do well, but if you attend lecture, you will have already done the majority of the work you will need to do. The professor covers everything you need to know in his lectures, and I didn't feel any need to read the textbook. The exams are really just about memorization, and the professor sends out a study guide with everything that will be on the exam a week before each exam. The hardest thing about the exam is that you have to memorize dates, or else you will lose a lot of points. As someone who enjoys learning about history, I found the lectures were really interesting and I learned a lot through this class.

TL/DR: Enjoyed this class. Fair amount of reading, but the exams are pretty fair and if you are a good note-taker you will be able to do well in the class. Definitely recommend for history majors or people looking for a good GE where you will be able to learn a breadth of knowledge you might need to know.

Full Review with grading/material/etc info here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15vILblHwWrnV7KnB-sOFzTRnQE2QPA7nmHxj4gdNKBU/edit?usp=sharing

Prof Phillips is extremely dull. Lectures often have one or two slides with no information on them, so you have to listen extremely closely to what he says. This is difficult in part because of all the ancient greek words that are used, so you don't know how they're spelled. He has some dry humor he throws in maybe once per class, which is admittedly pretty funny, but otherwise he's very stern. When I asked questions after class he was always very dismissive. The class also is extremely broad, so it's impossible to gain that much insight into the time periods. Pros: His periodical humor, his two tone doc martins. Cons: mean and boring, hard to follow, way too much material to cover.

I am selling the PDF version of the textbook for this class (Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean, 3rd Edition) for $10. Text me at ********** if interested, I accept venmo as payment.

If you're looking for a GE to take, this class definitely isn't going to be the easiest, but it wasn't terrible either. Unless you are passionate about ancient history in general, you'll probably find this class quite boring like I did. I'll break down some of my biggest complaints for this class:

1. Lecture: Phillips' lectures are very unengaging. It is straight up just 50 minutes of him talking nonstop. The worst part is, the slides that he projects doesn't have an ounce of information on them, just pictures. You are also not allowed to record his lectures (though honestly he doesn't really enforce this rule). This means that the only legit way to get the notes is by typing down every word he says verbally. He speaks at a moderately-fast pace too, so you might want to get your typing speed up for this class. Once again, his lectures are very boring and by the 20 minute mark I found myself exhausted from typing and unwilling to continue following along. The professor was also pretty curt and standoffish, he didn't really want to interact with any students. Though he is very clear when he is speaking so you'll be able to understand him most of the time.

2. Discussion: While discussion is only once a week, you will always have a considerable amount of reading assigned for discussion every week. The readings were honestly long and boring. I was never really motivated to actually do the readings (aside from week 1). My advice would be to just try your best to at least skim and do some light annotating of the readings and write bullet-pointed notes for each of the discussion questions (which are posted before discussion). In the discussion itself, your TA will just be going over these questions, so as long as you have some answer prepared for some of the questions, you will be fine. I honestly didn't participate that much and still got full points on discussion participation. I really liked my TA, he was basically the only good thing to come out of this class. He was very knowledgeable and you could tell he actually cared that we learned and he always wanted to help. Shoutout Ryan.

3. Exams: For our quarter, the grading system was 25% Midterm 1, 25% Midterm 2, 25% Final, and 25% Discussion Participation. If you notice, 75% of your grade is from your performance on exams. There is literally no other graded assignment besides the exams and the discussion participation. It can be good because it means theres no homework (besides the reading), but you will really need to put time into studying for the tests. His tests work quite simply: He gives you a study guide before each exam. The study guide lists between 35-45 Identifiations (IDs) which are just persons/places/things from the unit of study. There is also an essay section, and the study guide lists 4 possible essay questions. These essay questions are all related to the discussion readings. On the test, he will choose 8 of those IDs and 2 of the essay questions to put on the exam. Of the 8 IDs, you answer 5 of them (of your choosing) and 1 of the essay questions. You get an hour for the exam, which in my opinion is just enough time. When you answer the IDs, you basically have to describe everything the professor said about the ID in lecture, so make sure you have really good notes. Oh and also you will need to memorize the exact years/dates of relevancy for each ID, you will get points off if you don't include the dates. So the exams are very memorization heavy. In fact, that's all they are. Memorization. My advice is to use flashcards when studying and really hone it in on memorizing all the important facts/details for each ID. For the essay, just brainstorm outlines for 3 of the 4 possible essays and remember the outlines. I spent so so much time studying for these exams. The amount of memorization required is mind-numbing. The one saving grace to these exams is that the TAs tend to grade the tests quite leniently, especially with the essays. They usually won't dock off too many points unless you really screw up/forget. The averages for each of the tests were a mid-high B, which was honestly really surprising to me.

So if you're going to take this class, be prepared to put in a lot of time into it. And be prepared for it to be boring.

Prof Phillips' lectures were clear and concise, you can tell he knows exactly what he's talking about. He doesn't ask the class questions, he doesn't do iclicker, he just goes through the slides (which are mainly images and dates so really pay attention to what he's saying) and explains the topics. Exams/midterms/finals aren't too hard, very much memory based (remembering vocab, key figures, dates) as it is a history class. He has a dry sense of humor which I think is under appreciated. I would recommend this class as a GE, just make sure you don't procrastinate studying, and go to lecture even though it isn't counted towards a grade. Maybe reconsider taking this class with Phillips if you're a hands on or visual learner. This class is a lot of listening and reading (still manageable, imo)

Professor Philips teaches what is likely the most boring class you will ever take. I mean truly mind-numbing. That being said, it is also incredibly straightforward with no confusion whatsoever about what is to be expected of you.

Lectures are actually comically bad. He speaks a list of facts (names, dates, locations, etc.) at you for the full 50 minutes. There are no pauses, no breaks, and no questions. This is all done with no slides or any other aid to his speech. He does not slow down and he does not repeat things. If you didn't hear it the first time, tough. As for how to spell things in the ancient languages, good luck, he does not write anything down. I cant convey in text how boring these lectures are.

For exams, you are asked to produce the definitions of a few terms that he has covered in lecture as well as a short essay. A list of about 50 terms as well as 4 essay promps will be posted prior to the exam. The exams are a selection of a few of the terms and 2 of the essay prompts (you choose 1 to write). Because of this, all the exams are very easy if you can remember stuff well. Though, the terms are only covered in lecture and perhaps only covered with a few sentences. This means that, in order to have notes for all terms, you have to nearly transcribe the entire lecture. There is no good way to research terms outside of lecture, because he quizzes you on the dates and events that he talks about in lecture, which may be different than dates and events in other sources.

If you are ok with completely mindless copying of what he says during lectures, then the class is incredibly easy. The entire grade is 4 exams, discussion participation, and a final paper. The exams are as described above and are very easy if you can memorize things. There is assigned reading for discussion (and a lot of it), but you really don't have to do it. Just look up summaries online and you're fine, its sometimes covered in lecture as well. The final paper is like 9 pages, we were given 4 prompts and could choose 1. Its mostly based on the readings and some of the prompts had material that was just not covered in class at all.

The class is a very easy A if you are good at memorizing stuff, but is so damn boring that I would almost rather get a worse grade with a different prof.

i took this class my first quarter at UCLA to fulfill a GE and here are my main comments
- half of this class is about memorizing names and dates!!
- go to EVERY. SINGLE. LECTURE and type LITERALLY everything the professor says. everything you need to know is from his lectures and the smaller books (the main textbook is useless). he doesn’t record lectures and he doesn’t write anything on the board (the powerpoints are basically useless). TYPE WHAT YOU HEAR AND COMMAND F LATER!!
- The workload for this class is not bad until the midterms when you have to memorize names, dates, and accomplishments of 40-50 people and then prepare 4 essays from the short books you read.
- grading is 60% exams (20% for each of 30 exams), 20% term paper, and 20% participation.
- EXAMS: he will give you 40-50 people and you have to “identify them” (essentially their accomplishments, dates, location, etc). The he will give 4 essays and you have to outline them. then for the actual exam, he will give you 8 of the 40-50 people you memorized and you will choose 5 of them to write about (talk about a lot of extra work for no reason). then he will give 2 of the 4 essays and you pick 1 to write.
- professor is nice. he gives you an INSANE amount of info in a short period of time.
- i got an A so no complaints. Not an easy GE but not an awful GE either

Grade Breakdown:
3 Hour Examinations (2 Midterms + Final) - 60%
Term Paper - 20%
Discussion Section Participation - 20%

- Lectures were in-person and NOT recorded. This was a pain honestly, because Dr. Phillips doesn't include any words on his slides (only pictures) and the information is very dense. However, if you pay attention, you can note down most important things, as he does post a lecture outline ahead of time which has all the important terms discussed in lecture.
- Exams were VERY fair, basically he provided a study guide which contained about 40 identification terms and 4 essays a week in advance of the exam. On the test itself, there would be 8 of those terms and 2 essays, you would have to choose 5 terms to identify (basically just describe what it was and its significance) and 1 essay, each worth 50% of the exam grade. There are lots of quizlets with terms already, but I recommend making your own using lecture notes. You also have to include all relevant dates which is a pain. From what I've seen, TAs were not harsh with grading
- There are readings in the syllabus, but honestly the only ones I read were the readings explicitly discussed during discussion section. You can find a pdf of pretty much everything except the B-L reading. The textbook really isn't necessary to read, but is sometimes helpful to get information while memorizing for the exam
- The term paper is due Week 8/9 and is kind of like the exam essay, but 7-8 pages, requiring citations. He gives you a couple of prompts, and it was not graded harshly.
- Discussion sections are mandatory and you just discuss certain readings, which can sometimes be long. I just tried to participate every section a couple times.
Overall: I would recommend taking this class as a GE only IF you are good at memorization as 60% of your grade is based on it. The final is not cumulative so it makes it a little easier. Dr. Phillips is not very approachable tbh, but loves to include dry humor in his lectures which is always amusing.

-I highly recommend taking Hist 1A with Phillips! As a GE, this course might be a lot of work, but for history majors or just anyone interested in classical history, you will learn a lot. It was asynchronous, with lectures prerecorded and posted online ahead of time. This flexibility is good, so you could take your time taking notes on the lectures, which are DENSE. He doesn't use lecture slides so you need to write down what he directly says. Phillips talks pretty monotonously, but his dry humor is A+ and he wears cool ties. You could tell by his lectures that Phillips is an expert in his field.

-There are multiple books necessary for this course: two course readers with primary sources, one thick history book, and a few classical texts. You could get away with not reading everything, but if you want to get all that this class has to offer, I recommend reading everything he assigns. The primary sources and classical texts are especially interesting. The history textbook had a lot of good information but is biased against Christians.

-Most of your grade in this course will be based on a few tests and a term paper. Phillips posts the tests ahead of time. There are about 30-40 terms and 4 essay prompts on the previews. He will put 8 random terms on the actual test in which you choose 5 to write. He will put 2 essay prompts on the actual test in which you will choose 1 to write. Phillips expects you to write these out ahead of time because you only have 50 minutes for the test. Writing out this many paragraphs and essays is A LOT, but it forces you to go back to your notes and learn the information. The term paper is a 6-8 page essay. He'll put up a few prompts and you can choose which one you want to do.

-Discussion sections were pretty much just talking about the primary sources. My TA was Mr. Gonzalez and he was great! Knowledgeable about the sources and a fair grader. Participation in discussion sections is part of your overall grade.

-You don't get a lot of interaction with Phillips himself, but he does have office hours and answers emails.

-Highly recommend this class if you want to learn about classical history with a no BS professor.